The Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council has released new model deviation text for eight parts of the FAR as part of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul, or RFO, initiative.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to streamline the federal procurement process and eliminate barriers to doing business with the government.
The FAR Council issued new text for Part 15 – Contracting by Negotiation; Part 16 – Types of Contracts; Part 22 – Application of Labor Laws to Government Acquisitions; and Part 23 – Sustainable Acquisition, Material Safety and Pollution Prevention; Part 25 – Foreign Acquisition; Part 32 – Contract Financing; Part 42 – Contract Administration and Audit Services; and Part 53 – Forms.
These eight parts are open for feedback until Nov. 3.
The council has yet to issue implementation support for Parts 22, 23, 32 and 53.
Contracting by Negotiation
The text of FAR Part 15 concerning contracting by negotiation has been revised for greater clarity. The part now comes with updated rules of engagement, redefined competitive range and five subparts: presolicitation and solicitation; evaluation and award; postaward; contract pricing; and unsolicited proposals.
Part 15 continues to be primarily used for establishing negotiated contracts when using a request for proposals.
A section that addresses the types of negotiated acquisitions has been updated to modernize the language throughout. The two paragraphs in this section are now titled “Noncompetitive Acquisitions” and “Competitive Acquisitions.”
A section concerning issuing solicitations has been removed due to repetitive information found in other FAR parts.
Types of Contracts
FAR Part 16 has been updated to clarify complicated policies and procedures for selecting contract type and provide the acquisition workforce with new flexibilities and tools to support the guiding principles for the FAR system.
Key improvements to Part 16 include innovative contract types, significant task and delivery order procedure simplification, on-and-off ramps and blanket purchase agreements.
A subpart concerning contract type selection has been restructured to consolidate policies, stress documentation and provide contracting officers with greater flexibility.
The council has updated a subpart on incentive contracts to consolidate all incentive-related policies and contract type descriptions into a single subpart and revised a subpart on indefinite-delivery contracts to clearly outline the types of task and delivery order contracts for acquisition professionals and how to use them.
